Teresa (child ment)

While I know this news is shocking and devastating, please try not to put too much stock into this number, as difficult as it may seem. Age plays a huge factor in determining this number, and this blood test has such a high rate of false positives.

When I was pregnant with my daughter four years ago (at age 33) my result came back at 1 in 105. Like you, I was in shock, devastated and couldn't believe this was happening to me after already suffering one loss (at that time.) This was before my IF diagnosis and I knew absolutely nothing at all...I was in ignorant bliss, I guess you could say, until this news came along. I learned though that this test has high false positives and causes needless worrying. This is not a diagnostic test, but a screening and it is really important to remember that. You had a really good measurement, which should go a lot farther than the blood test, in actuality.

There are really no words that are going to make you feel better no matter what other people's experience with this may have been, but hopefully it will help somewhat. I've been there before and it's really hard not to focus on this number, but it is not diagnostic. In the end, for my peace of mind for the rest of my pregnancy, I needed to have conclusive results, so I opted for an amnio. I was scared out of my mind for that procedure, but knew it was what I needed to do to move forward. The risk of the amnio at my OB's practice was well over 1 in 1,000, which far outweighed the other risk, so after talking with a genetic counselor, that was what we opted to do. Needless to say, there was nothing wrong with my daughter and that 1 in 105 number was meaningless and caused weeks of endless torment and worrying for no reason at all.

I hope you get some good information from the genetic counselor tomorrow to help you process this. Sending you hugs!